Abuse victims cry out over horrific experience at St. Joseph orphanage in Australia

At least 13 former residents at the orphanage have spoken out about extreme abuse.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse in Rockhampton is currently investigating child abuse accusations thrown at the people who have ran Neerkol St. Joseph's Orphanage. The victims of abuse at the questioned orphanage have revealed last Tuesday at the court hearing they have suffered so much from the nuns and priests who have ran the institution. One of the victims claimed to have been raped, with the use of a broom handle, while others were punished by drinking their own urine.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - The victim, referred to as AYB, confesses to have been raped at age 11 by Reginald Durham, a parish priest, more than a hundred times. The other victim has been gang raped by the employees of the institution and became pregnant from it at the age of 14.

A retired nurse who worked at the orphanage claims to have been repetitively slapped and punched during her stay at the institution.

The experiences at the orphanage are traumatic. Another victim, only referred to as AYL, was raped numerous times by the employees, where they had her gagged and bound. One of the employees named Kevin Baker, was named as a rapist, using a broom handle.

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According to AYL, Baker raped a boy until he bled. After seeing that, she told a nun what happened but she was slapped by the nun in the face. It is said that the nuns who have managed the institution gave out abusive punishments to the children.

AYL was brought to the orphanage at the age of 10, and by the time she was 14, she got pregnant. She gave birth at a girls' home, and a nun who was present at the time of her delivery, took her baby away. After that, she no longer had any information as to what happened to the baby or its whereabouts.

Mary Adams, a retired nurse who worked at Neerkol St. Joseph's Orphanage, who is now 64 years old, cried during the hearing while recalling bad experiences where she was physically, emotionally, and sexually assaulted by the nuns and priests at the institution.

Although she received a compensation of $20,000 from the ones who ran the orphanage namely, the Catholic Diocese of Rockhampton and the Sisters of Mercy, she says that no amount of money can bring back her dignity, childhood, and her self-worth.

The commission will be getting statements from 13 former residents of the orphanage during the the Rockhampton hearing, in Queensland on April 24. 

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